Darlington, SC (My Sportsbook) - Kasey Kahne captured the pole for Saturday night's Dodge Charger 500 at the Darlington Raceway. The No.9 Evernham Dodge circled the 1.366-mile oval in 28.923 seconds (170.024 m.p.h.). Kahne won last year's pole as well.

The pole victory was Kahne's first of the season and fifth of his Cup career.

"The guys did a good job, they made a few changes to our Dodge Dealers UAW- Dodge and I felt like the car was great," said Kahne. "I was a little free through (turns) one and two, but three and four felt really good."

Starting on the front row with Kahne will be Ryan Newman, who posted a second- best time of 29.003 seconds. It will be Newman's fifth front row start of 2005.

Greg Biffle (29.060) and Elliott Sadler (29.156) will start in row two.

Series points leader Jimmie Johnson, who won the Busch pole earlier in the afternoon, will start ninth in the 43-car field. Johnson won both events at Darlington in 2004 one of three tracks where he swept the spring and fall races (Pocono and Lowe's were the others).

The No.48 Chevrolet has struggled over the past two events - finishing 15th and 20th. Johnson has made six starts at Darlington and come home with five top-10s.

Kurt Busch managed a seventh-place finish at Talladega and remained second overall. The defending series champion, who is 130 points behind Johnson, will begin in 11th place.

Jeff Gordon won last week at Talladega and has now won four of the last five restrictor-plate events. He trails his Hendrick Motorsports teammate by 151 points. Gordon will start 14th on the grid.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who returned to the top-10 for the first time since he finished third at Daytona, posted the 39th-quickest lap and will have to start near the back of the field.

Starting up front at Darlington can be very beneficial. Fifty-five of 101 Nextel Cup events held at the "Lady in Black" have been won by drivers starting in the first two rows.

The race is scheduled to begin on Saturday night at 7:10 (edt).